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Hi All,
A final order has been made. The order doesn’t consider arrangements for school and the order cited the child’s young age as a factor when making the decision. My barrister’s advice was to wait until before school begins to return to court. Given the protracted time taken to go through the court process, and given the requirement to build up time so that a settled living arrangement is in place before school starts (in 20 months’ time), I am minded to return to court earlier than advised. If we return to court in the summer, 1 year will have passed.
The order was breached by mother within 3 months of the final order being made. This related to a medical issue that was the subject of a SIO. It is the second clear breach but the first breach of the final order (the previous breach was a breach of the interim order and related to withholding our child). The final order is a “lives with mother” order. My hope is that the quantum of time will be 50/50 (and a “lives with both” order) before school starts.
The existing final order states that mother must not unreasonably object to holidays abroad with father. Permission has not been given for one such holiday so far (no response was given, just ignoring messages on the parenting app). Mother refuses to communicate on matters such as toilet training etc (there’s a general resistance to co-parenting and positive communication). Another holiday is coming up in the summer, no response from her on that one yet either but I will 100% go to court to ensure that holiday happens. If I do go to court for a Specific Issues Order for the holiday then 1 year will have passed since the final order was made.
So my question is: do I need to submit and enforcement application for the medical-related SIO? Do I need to also submit a variation for a change in child arrangements? And do I need to submit a SIO for the holidays alongside it?
So is that 3 separate applications (that presumably get rolled into one hearing)? If so, do I use the previous court bundle again but just add to it? What forms do I submit?
The other issue is that mother has removed child from nursery for no good reason so now I have to take child into nursery during the 2 days per week that child is in my care. There is disagreement on nursery, if mediation fails (and I’ll of course attempt mediation first), could this be the subject of a (second) SIO? I don’t suppose things like nursery decisions fall under the umbrella of “child arrangements” and the new CAO could include provision for child being made to attend nursery? Or do they? I know fine well my old solicitor wouldn’t know the answer to this either - clueless.
I’m hopefully going to avoid using a solicitor. They just rinse you dry. Maybe I’ll use a DAB.
I could maybe request that a district judge hears this as magistrates are fairly soft and useless.
A worry of mine is that the reason for communication being stopped/minimised on her side is that she will attempt to say “we don’t communicate therefore we can’t co-parent therefore shared care is impossible”. This is obviously logically flawed as it is her choice to refuse to communicate; however, courts don’t necessarily follow logic
hi,
I suggest it's better for you to follow barristers advice and do not return to court so soon. I think it's unlikely they will make significant changes whilst child has not started primary school. nursery is not compulsory education, so I doubt they will order it.
be wary of making too many applications. court may impose a barring order. if you seek to vary order in future, then within 1 c100 application you can seek to vary cao, aswell as specific issues, prohibited steps order etc. will be very costly if you involve lawyers in future. may want to think about self representing. feel free to get in touch if you need advice.
@bill337 Hi, thanks for your reply. I hear you on the “wait a bit longer” advice. But I really need to make the order before schools are selected. So before Jan 2025. The court gave great weighting in the final hearing decision to the fact that our child was now in nursery and had a nursery routine that should not be disrupted, however it transpired that our child hardly attended nursery and now has been removed entirely. I have started putting our child into nursery during the two days our child is with me. But this means our child has even less time with me now. I realise nursery isn’t compulsory education but our child was (and is) really missing out and it’s not fair on our child.
There is also a breach of the current specific issues order that has a medical element to it. To wait an additional 6 months would present an ongoing health risk to our child.
And I would need to return to court anyway to force through our family holidays which have been blocked (the order says “mother should not unreasonably object to holidays” but so far no consent has been given and one holiday has been missed with another expensive holiday coming up in the summer).
again, I really appreciate your response
Also, the final order specifically states that both parents have PR and therefore into educational and religious decisions must be made jointly. Simply pulling our child out of nursery therefore is in breach of said order.
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